


Still Taken by Surprise

by nightvaleanlibrarian (kazosah)



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos has extreme feelings, Carlos is constantly surprised by weirdness, Carlos wants to be a legit Night Valean, Carlos wants to not be surprised damn it, Cecil can explain everything, Family Fluff, Fluff, M/M, OH MY GOD THEY MAKE A HOME TOGETHER, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, at one point there's toddler dialogue, carlos is the stay at home dad, cecilos - Freeform, it's pretty much fluff with an ever present side of weirdness, like cecil said - that would be NEAT, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-22
Updated: 2013-10-22
Packaged: 2017-12-30 03:56:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1013812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazosah/pseuds/nightvaleanlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven years, a husband, and a child. Night Vale had accepted him, but Carlos still found himself caught off guard by the peculiarities of the strange city, the people that populated it and the illogical goings on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Taken by Surprise

.

Seven. Seven long but oh-so-incredibly fulfilling years in Night Vale and Carlos still found himself caught off guard by the peculiarities of the strange city, the people that populated it and the illogical goings on that occurred within it. The bizarre place that began simply as brief visitation for work and research, inadvertently ended up the final destination of his life. Night Vale introduced Carlos to his husband seven years ago.

Six years ago Night Vale helped him realize Cecil's affections weren't merely jokes or teasing for the general public's amusement; Cecil’s adoration was true and Carlos’ feelings reciprocated.

Five years in the past, Carlos witnessed something he couldn't explain, nor could he actually recall after bearing witness to it, but it was something to do with how babies in Night Vale were born, or how - more realistically - Night Vale generated people at their infant stages of life and delivered them to City Council approved couples (which also more or less made them married in the city's eyes – just… wow). Logic and science couldn't aid him then; and besides, Cecil would never let Carlos experiment on their child, no matter how harmless the tests might be. Quickly, Carlos began to understand that logic and Night Vale were two things that just didn't and probably never would coincide. He understood that some things in Night Vale just... were. Like the mysterious Dog Park, and the ban on wheat and wheat by-products; it's just how it was, and he just sort of had to deal with it. But that wasn't to say that he was 'simply dealing with' his and Cecil's new child -  Tamim , as Cecil had murmured with wide, shining eyes when the babe, swaddled in purple cloth, was deposited into his arms. Carlos loved the child, loved them like he loved Cecil, like he was slowly appreciating and loving all the oddities of Night Vale.  Tamim  Palmer was just another wonderful gift the city had bestowed him.

Four years ago, Carlos became a full-time stay at home dad. And once again, Night Vale proved to surprise him, changing Carlos in ways he'd never dreamed of. He'd never really thought of children in his future, not even when he'd finished college. But here he was, loving the parent life. He never missed a waking moment to read to  Tamim , eager to mold their mind, to instill and strengthen early cognition with stimulating activities. But at the end of the day, they found their favorite time was turning the radio on and hearing Daddy's rich, velvety voice floating from the speakers.

Three years back, Carlos came to understand that children born from Night Vale (‘ from ’, not ‘ in ’;  from , which probably explained something, but nothing at all at the exact same time) developed slightly different from children born outside of Night Vale. That’s how Cecil had explained it, in simple terms. In a gentle enough way for Carlos to know that it wasn't at all strange that markings like tattoos similar to Cecil's were slowly appearing on  Tamim's  small, toddler body. So incredibly slowly, like a singular pin prick of ink every half hour. Much to  Tamim's  credit, they weren't scared at all, not like their Dad, who'd interrupted a live broadcast with a frantic call to Cecil's cell phone.

Two years in the past and Carlos finally felt like he was part of the city's populace. A true Night  Valean  that saw no irregularity, but rather the simplicity that the city bore for his life with his husband and child. A city where no one took their dog to, looked at, or even thought about the Dog Park. Everyone ate at Big Rico's weekly, as required, no questions asked. No one approached the hooded figures, and their Mayor Hiram McDaniel's was literally a five-headed dragon.

Last year Carlos was startled into sobbing hysterics when  Tamim's  first sentence was, "I love you, Dad." Cecil had found the pair on the sofa,  Tamim  sitting upright at one end, watching municipal approved cartoons, with Carlos sprawled along the rest of the cushions, arms wrapped snugly around his child, his face buried in their belly, sniffling occasionally, shoulders having yet to cease quivering.

Going by his child's calm attitude toward the situation Cecil didn't feel the need to worry, but still asked, "Ta, what happened to Dad?"

And Carlos’ back shook with silent sobs with much more vigor, but  Tamim  seemed to have it all under control, plucking a tissue from the tissue box perched on the arm rest of the sofa, they nudged it into the closest of Carlos's hands before looking to Cecil, "His happy  broked , but he's okay." And after a beat, as they suddenly remembered, the child excitedly added, "Hi Daddy!" Carlos's sobs intensified.

It was during the last year, leading up to  Tamim's  fifth birthday that Carlos had finally managed to contain his proud-papa-moments, as Cecil dubbed them. Though now and then he'd be metaphorically gut-punched when  Tamim  said something cute or did something adorable. Or even worse, a stab to the heart when Cecil and  Tamim  were together, matching violet eyes, matching grins and matching noses. However it happened, Carlos still couldn't recall, no matter how hard he thought (and neither did Cecil, but unlike Carlos, Cecil couldn't give a damn about the details),  Tamim  shared equal amounts of characteristics with them. Eyes, smile, nose and Night  Valean  markings with Cecil; hair, and skin tone with Carlos. Sharp intellect, inquiring mind, like Carlos, but an aloofness to the common occurrences within their city, and a devotion to follow the rules was inherited from Cecil. There were some freckles coming in, though neither Carlos nor Cecil sported spots of that nature, they attributed it to the hot, desert sun; something wholly  Tamim .

Now it was just the other night. Just the other night when Carlos was content in his perfectly strange city, in his moderately sized home, sleeping in the bed he shared with his ridiculously amazing husband, when he heard his name being called from down the hall. He was roused by the sound he knew so well, of  Tamim's  voice, but what was odd was he wasn't calling for 'Dad', but 'Carlos'.

It wasn't too weird, since  Tamim  had recently wondered why Daddy introduced himself as 'Cecil' on the radio, and whenever he referenced Dad it was 'my sweet, beautiful, imperfect, husband Carlos', and Carlos explained those were actually their names.  Tamim  understood, but had brushed it off, saying Dad and Daddy was much more preferable.

Carlos sighed softly as he sat up, running a hand through his sleep tousled hair. He glanced to his left, where Cecil lay, sound asleep, though the calling of Carlos's name persisted Cecil didn't stir in the slightest. He sighed again, this time with slight indignation. His feet touched to the floor and he hissed at the cold wood stinging his skin; why had he let Cecil convince him to put wood flooring throughout the entire house. Every step was like a brand new step onto solid ice as he padded from the room and into the hall.

Tamim's  voice stopped then, probably having heard Carlos making his way over. He was grateful for the green night-light illuminating enough of his child's room, lest he take a treacherous step on many a Lego in his trek to reach the bed where  Tamim  lay. Carlos clicked on the side table light and sat on the edge of the bed, wary of the Legos and other plastic foot-murdering toys that littered the floor. It was too much light, and Carlos winced before looking to his child, but found that  Tamim  was just as dead asleep as Cecil was, "Ta," Carlos’ groggy voice whispered, he touched their shoulder gently, brushing his fingers through the long fringe against forehead, "Ta, you were calling me, are you alright?"

Tamim  stirred awake, eyes bleary and unable to focus on Carlos, their little voice was laced with sleep, waving a hand idly from atop the covers, a motion he'd seen Cecil make thousands of times while on the air, the animated speaker he was. "Dad, when they call you're not supposed to answer." And Ta promptly fell back to sleep, leaving Carlos wide awake and horrified.

The matter-of-fact tone was the least of his worries. It was the vague information that accompanied that tone that threw Carlos for a loop. Surely this was something Cecil would be able to explain in the morning, but that was five hours from now, and there was no way Carlos could get back to sleep after that.

Seven years had come and gone. He had a husband. He had a child. Carlos loved them and they loved him. Night Vale had accepted him, but Carlos had yet to anticipate the strange, new things Night Vale presented him.

.

.

.

**Author's Note:**

> This came about because my dear, sweet, friend Nich sent me a link to 60 creepy stories that will ruin your day, or something of that nature. I know my mind, and I know I shouldn't have even glanced at the first story when I saw they were mini horror stories. BUT I DID. And now here I am, at 4 in the morning, writing a little Cecilos one-shot.  
> One of the stories entailed a dad waking up because his son was calling for him, by his name, and his son said the thing, and it was creepy as hell AND I HAVE THIS tendency now thanks to WTNV when I read or see weird stuff I immediately think, 'This some weirdy Night Vale shit' and proceed to try and make it into a story.
> 
> Tamim [Tah-meem] in Hebrew means, "blameless," "perfect," "wholehearted," or "complete." Or at least I hope it means that, or I'm gonna look like such a jackass. Anyway, I thought I'd stick to the Hebrew theme - Khoshehk. And if Cecil and Carlos had a kid, by whatever means (not mpreg though, I just can't, I can't, I'm sorry) Cecil would of course toss all the 'imperfection' stuff he said to the wind because Cecilos baby is perfection. And I figure Cecil would leave gender up to his kid to eventually decide for themselves, so - they, them, their.
> 
> My vision of Tamim was based on the little boy actor from The Walking Dead in season 1 - Noah Lomax. I find his freckles extraordinary.


End file.
